Entertainment For Lively Minds
What's your favourite childrens film?
Posted by Dave Amitri on 24 December 2009 - 8:39pm.
Christmas, it's all about the kids isn't it? The BBC no longer show Disneytime at Christmas which is a real shame, it was always a favourite of mine at this time of year. I suppose children today want more from a film than those simple yet brilliant Disney classics.
My favourite childrens film is fairly obvious, it's "Toy Story". Not only because of it's all round genius but also because my boys were the perfect age when it came out. I can still see the joy in their faces and hear their laughter at Buzz and Woody's "YOU ARE A TOY!" debate, perfect. What childrens film would you like to be dusting down and sharing with the youngsters this Christmas?
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The Magic of Pixar
has been entertaining and - easy to forget - enlightening - my two - currently 7 and 4 - for a while now.
Toy Story, The Incredibles, Cars, Monsters Inc, Up - all wonderful films. It's a good job they are as they're the only kind of movies I get to see on the big screen these days. Actually, probably better than my beloved Disney animations of yesteryear - not that I'd ever admit such a thing, of course. Anyway - the old ones had better tunes...
"Everybody wants to be a cat, because a cat's the only cat, who knows where it's at..."
Merry Christmas one and all
The Happy Prince / Gay Purr-ee
Not films, but cartoons. I haven't seen the former in years, but I remember it being incredibly sad:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071596/
Gay Purr-ee - lovely rich colours, Judy Garland narrating and a very cute cat:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057093/
'Daddy, my daddy…'
… nuff said.
Goodness me, yes.
"Very wonderful and beautiful things do happen, don't they? And we live most of our lives in the hope of them"....
Daddy, my Daddy
Beat me to it, gets me every time
Up takes some beating
but I also loved The Incredible. Toy Story 2 is also very good. And the original Willy Wonka is still irresistible as well.
Incredibles, Aristocats,
Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And my 2 year old loves Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Also - never saw it as a kid, but…
Pee Wee's Big Adventure is wonderful, and (IMHO) Tim Burton has never bettered it. This scene actually equates very closely to my own morning routine.
Anyone seen The Secret Of Roan Inish?
It's John Sayles's only children's film, and it's an absolute delight. No monsters, aliens, talking animals or anything noisome like that. A really sweet story about a "silkie" (or is it?), set in rural Ireland.
Then there's Fly Away Home, about a girl and her father who adopt a clutch of goslings and have to try to teach them to fly south for the winter. Pure magic.
Yes
Azeem you took the words out of my mouth . I gave this on video ( a number of years ago ) to the child who is the nearest thing I have to a daughter . Flo nearly played it to death . Sadly there is not a region 2 dvd version available .
Not sure
which one you're referring to Danmac, but both "Roan Inish" and "Fly Away Home" are available on region 2, and pretty cheap too...
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=60...
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=45...
Thank You KDH
You have made an old man very happy it was Roan Inish btw .
Best Disney
for me is "Lady And The Tramp", closely followed by "Beauty And The Beast".
Bugsy Malone...
....nothing better
One of my fav stories relates to that film
My mate Panda was a child tap dancer ( as was I ) . She went to the audition for this film and the girl beside her swung an arm and, purely accidentally caught her in the eye . Panda ended up with a bruised eye and was not given a role . Would you like to guess who the girl was ?
that lady
who Hannibal Lecter fancied?
yes
It is Panda's claim to fame Jodie blacked her eye
That's lucky.
It could have been Bonnie Langford.
(Incidentally, yesterday I overheard an angry woman hissing at her husband "Oh, ANYTHING that ISN'T Bonnie Langford!!")
I never thought my life could be.....
Its got Roy Kinnear in it. And Gene Wilder has rarely been better (outside working with Mel Brooks)
A friend of mine recently revealed she hasn't seen this and so thats my post Xmas visit viewing sorted
Princess Bride
Is that classed as a kids film ? If so,That is my favourite. followed by
Tintin and The Mystery of The Golden Fleece (french,but i have it dubbed into English)
Pepperland
I utterly, totally,
I utterly, totally, completely agree with you! This is the film I most loved as a kid.
Wall-E
Just wonderful
Forgot about that
Yes, it is wonderful.
Jim Henson has to be up there in the top reaches
of any chart...
Recently I utterly adored Coraline. Dunno if this makes me a luddite, but the stop motion animation seems far more magical than any CGI to me...
The Singing Ringing Tree
With, as here, the original english narration. I remember seeing it in 10-15 minute instalments on the bbc. It takes me back to being 9 years old. I loved it then and I love it now.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year.
Spirited Away
Is, I think, magical. I look forward to watching this with my son when he's old enough for it not to give him bad dreams for decades.
I the meantime, I'd go for Thirteen Going On Thirty. Which is a tweeny girly load of old tripe and absolutely lovely. Not that I'd expect my son to think that.
The Princess Bride's up there as well.
Miyazaki Magic
I love Spirited away but for best kid's film I'd pick My Neighbour Totoro every time. Innocence, beauty, a great story and, well, Totoros.
Then Kiki's Delivery Service
Then Snow White
Oh and I love the Princess Bride too.
Another vote for My Neighbour Totoro
I bought the DVD and watched it with my two daughters whilst mum was away, as was the mother in the film. It's always been a special one for us. The animation is, of course, fantastic, but the thing I really love about it is the incredibly subtle use of sound and, more unusually, silence - something you don't get much of in Pixar movies.
Hello Mr Amazon..
My Miyazake collection has now been expanded. Hopefully arriving soon.
I had a very nice Christmas Eve
Watched the original Miracle on 34th Street on Film 4, then shoved on an old video of It's a Wonderful Life. Surely, the two best Christmas films ever? Even my 10 and 8 year olds watched them without once complaining that they were in black and white.
Black and White
Try the little darlings with some Laurel and Hardy.Pure genius.
I was lucky enough to see this in a cinema full of kids
I was at primary school when that came out
and it was definitely an event... not half as much as Ghostbusters was, though - now THAT is a truly great film!
Elf
Just that. Best Christmas film ever. Best Children's film ever. Hell, after two bottles of Pinot already this morning, the best film ever!! Absolute class...
Not sure if it counts as a children's film...
but I saw The Exorcist when I was 9 and thoroughly enjoyed it.
You are
Mark Kermode and I claim my £5.
Nah.
If Patrick was, indeed, Dr K, the last post would have gone on for several pages.
He is, however, rumoured to lurk in these parts.
Explorers
Anyone else like this Joe Dante picture? It stars a young River Phoenix and several of Dante's regular troupe (Robert Picardo,Dick Miller etc ).I've always loved it since I stumbled across it a video rental shop long,long ago. It is available on DVD ,but oddly, a couple of scenes which I definately remember being included in the original movie are "deleted scene" extras on the DVD.Wonder why?
I stated in the OP
that my favourite childrens film was Toy Story but I had forgotten one that was a part of my childhood as opposed to my boys childhood. I owned the LP of Disney's Jungle Book as a child and played it to death. I can still picture the storybook that came with it and remember every word to every song so I have to place Toy Story at number 2 and declare this is my favourite childrens film.
No mention...
....so far of Shrek. Much as I think the Toy Story series movies are good, they're just a bit too formulaic and clean for mine. Shrek's a nice change of pace. Jungle book is up there too.
On the other end of the scale, I had the great misfortune to take the kids to Alvin & The Chipmunks 2 yesterday. It was teeth-grindingly bad. I felt sorry for the actors pretty much all the way through, and can only hope they were paid enormous sums of money to embarass themselves that much. After some enormously cheesy story setup, it morphed into High School Musical for the sub-10's. Yeeuch.
Spongebob the Movie
Up there with Spinal Tap. It really is.
Jason and the Argonauts
Not sure this is for children but it certainly appealed to me as a squeaky little boy.
The bit were the huge bronze warrior statue, Talos, started to move absolutely terrified me. Even now, if its on telly, I have to wait to watch that bit of it again.
I own a small daughter now and she insists we sit and watch Disney DVD's endlessly. Sad to say some treasured memories of my youth have been shown up as rather hollow. The Aristocats; such a dull movie! Only Scatman Crothers singing makes it worthwhile.
We're both very fond of all the Pixars. They're so rich in detail and colour, though the funniest thing they ever did was a short available on the DVD of Monster's Inc called 'Mike's New Car'. Brilliant. 'PUSH THE BUTTON!'
1000 Thumbs Up
Nobody seems to have mentioned the 1953 'Dr Seuss' movie The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T'; perhaps not strictly a kids film in the traditional sense, but certainly one of the weirdest and most wonderfully surreal movies ever made. The 'human orchestra' scene left me absolutely spellbound as a child and still does it for me today.